How Chinese porcelain went global: Hong Kong exhibition full of rare pieces puts creative spin on an old paradigm

Early Chinese porcelain paired with copies of Western paintings featuring similar pieces is one feature of the Chinese University of Hong Kong art museum’s show

It is one of a number of special projects marking the museum’s 50th anniversary, which also includes an exhibition about Guangdong artists and collectors

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This 18th-century cup and saucer set, part of the CUHK art museum exhibition, was first made in China without decoration and then fired with overglaze painting in the Netherlands. Both the cup and saucer depict the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Photo: Enid Tsui

Published: 5:15pm, 29 Sep 2021Updated: 10:14am, 30 Sep 2021

Some of the exhibits at a new show about Chinese trade porcelains are not what most people would think of as “museum quality”.

But these chipped plates, water-damaged teapots and humble fragments of Chinese blue-and-whites are being shown alongside magnificent and rare pieces that have survived intact at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) art museum to put a new spin on a well-known paradigm of globalisation.

The history of the West’s obsession with Chinese porcelain is well known. In the 16th century, enterprising European merchants began supplying their home markets with Chinese porcelains made with Western consumers in mind, and they sold so well that a great trade imbalance developed.

That began to change in the 17th century, when wars and periodic maritime trade bans during the Ming dynasty disrupted supplies from the Jingdezhen kilns in China’s southeast, resulting in Japan becoming the biggest exporter of porcelain. But what really broke China’s dominance forever was a failed experiment by a German alchemist in 1709 that resulted in Europe’s first hard-paste porcelain able to match Chinese porcelain in quality.

The exhibition matches exhibits, such as this Qing dynasty blue-and-white dinner set, with the appearance of similar Chinese porcelain in Western paintings, in this case George Dunlop Leslie’s Tea (1885). Photo: Enid Tsui

“Enchanting Expeditions”, an exhibition that is part of the CUHK art museum’s golden jubilee celebration, is an engaging account of how porcelains moved around the world.